closer than you think
by riouu
Summary: In which poor Kidou Yuuto, thinking himself lonely, tries over and over to get himself a girlfriend, only to be thwarted every single time by his room mate who tells him, "Better things are closer than you think." plus 10 years, somewhere in GO timeverse.


**Title: **closer than you think

**Author:** riou

**Length: **7927 words.

**Fandom:** Inazuma Eleven.

**Pairing:** Kidou Yuuto/Fudou Akio.

**Warnings:** Language, many sexual hints. R-15 to be safe.

**Summary:** In which poor Kidou Yuuto, thinking himself lonely, tries over and over to get himself a girlfriend, only to be thwarted every single time by his room mate who tells him, "Better things are closer than you think." +10 years Kidou/Fudou, somewhere in GO timeverse.

**Written: **14-16th March 2012.

**Note:** Does not contain Mary Sue OCs, even if the first paragraph or so makes you think it does. It really doesn't. There are no OCs and no Sues whatsoever in this story - just plot devices. :D

* * *

><p><strong>closer than you think;<strong>

She was beautiful, he thought. Her dark eyes reflected starshine and almost seemed able to hold entire universes in their chocolate depths, while her smile was so gorgeous and brilliant that it lit up the room. She dressed well, spoke well, and had a great sense of humour - she was practically perfect, so beautiful it almost _hurt_, but so, _so_ worth the ludicrous entrance fee to this club and all the money wasted so far on neon cocktails with questionable names. If Kidou Yuuto had known voluptuous sirens like this girl lurked in dark places where the only real light was of the strobing and coloured laser flashes on the dance floor, he'd have agreed to Endou's earlier offer of coming here with a lot more enthusiasm.

"Well, now you know!" laughed Mamoru as though he'd completely read Kidou's mind, flashing him a broad grin over the rim of his glass. He watched his best friend staring after the girl. "Go get her." He winked.

And go get her he did. They drank together, shared stories, danced with their eyes on only each other amidst the mass of rhythmically bouncing party-goers and blinding lights (though it could hardly be called dancing, it was so raw and intimate at points), and somewhere around midnight Kidou decided to take her home. Her eyes drew him in, caught him like they caught the light, and before he knew it he was helpless. Hopeless to resist. Really kind of drunk.

Endou called a taxi for them, looking suspiciously more sober than Kidou thought he should be, and they piled gratefully into the car before the autumn downpour could soak them through and chill them all to the bone. It took a surprising amount of effort not to kiss her senseless for the entire journey, but Kidou still had just enough decency not to start practically having sex with the girl when one of his best friends sat close on his right, chattering away animatedly. When they reached his apartment, they paid their share of the fare and waved Endou off before heading inside - only there did Kidou lose whatever was left of his composure, and they were all over each other by the time he finally unlocked the front door and guided her to the couch while she took him on a wild ride of mind-blowing kisses. He told her she was beautiful, absolutely amazing, and she complimented him in turn, whispering sugar-laced enticements into his ear. Her delicate fingers trailed down his chest, headed for his belt, and Kidou murmured a hoarse, "_Yes_," and then-

"Oh."

-and then a voice he'd not expected totally ruined their moment with that single syllable.

Snapping upright and somehow managing not to topple over in the process, Kidou turned to find Fudou standing in his bedroom doorway, a half-empty bowl of vanilla ice cream in one hand and a large spoon in the other, his expression caught between a look of mild surprise and something akin to intense amusement. Kidou realised he probably looked worse, maybe stunned. He sat back a bit and heard the siren under him sigh and mutter her discontent. It appeared neither of them felt this intruder (who lived here) was welcome.

"You're still here?" Kidou stammered after an awkward pause that he only allowed to linger as long as it did because he could not find his voice. "Fudou, I said-"

"I know. I _was_ going to go out," interrupted Fudou with an idle shrug, acting as though he had not stumbled across anything out of the ordinary and as though he had not just possibly ruined Kidou's whole night, "but then it started raining and it was cold so I decided not to bother. I tried calling you, you know, to let you know you wouldn't have the house to yourself." He paused as if considering something, then offered the girl a wave and a smile that looked more amused than it perhaps should. "Hi, by the way. I'm Kidou's room mate."

_This is not the time for introductions just go away_, Kidou wanted to growl at him, but instead he mustered the tattered remains of his good manners and pleaded, "Can you leave for a bit at least? I-"

"No, it's okay," said the girl just then and gingerly worked her way out from under him. She smiled, but it was not a smile that illuminated the room; its allure was lost and now it only seemed somewhat strained. "I just remembered I have work early in the morning so I should probably...go." Patting Kidou's shoulder, almost apologetically, she met his gaze for a mere moment before standing and excusing herself, leaving Kidou to stare at Fudou in incredulous silence as he listened to her fading footsteps. The sound of the front door closing held a certain amount of finality to it. She hadn't even given him her number.

Fudou nonchalantly scooped up some of his ice cream and swallowed the tasty morsel. He drew the spoon from his mouth in a deliberately slow motion, a thoughtful sort of expression crossing his features.

"Well. Sorry about that." He did not sound at all apologetic. In a burst of frustration Kidou snatched up the nearest cushion and threw it at him, but it missed by far. Watching it bounce off the wall and just barely avoid knocking down a picture frame, Fudou turned his gaze back to the other man, quirked a brow, and cooly remarked, "You're _so_ drunk. Aren't you? You wouldn't miss that fucking horribly otherwise, Kidou."

He earned himself a glower followed by another cushion sent sailing his way, which he lazily dodged on his way into the kitchenette. Kidou was sorely tempted to follow him and catch him off-guard, and was contemplating the odds of successfully standing without falling right back over due to despair and/or his current state of inebriety, when a mug brimming with water entered his vision. Looking up, he caught Fudou's eye and blinked - Fudou just huffed and nudged the mug insistently against his hands, until Kidou found himself obediently cupping it and taking a sip of the cool liquid. It helped to clear his head a little but the heavy-heartedness at such a chance lost still lingered stubbornly in his chest.

"Good boy." There was only a hint of a patronising tone there in his voice as his room mate fell onto the couch beside him, drawing his legs up off the floor and sweeping his hair round so that it tumbled over one shoulder. His hair reminded Kidou of how long it had been since they first met, and how much had changed since then. "Drink up, and maybe I'll share my ice cream if you don't feel like you're about to puke."

"It's _my_ ice cream..." Kidou grumbled half-heartedly, leaning back into the welcome softness of the cushions. He tried not to think about who he just let leave his apartment and what he could be doing on this couch right now had Fudou not been here to fuck everything up.

"Well, it's in my bowl, so it's my ice cream now," Fudou retorted with a laugh. Another spoonful of said stolen frozen delicacy was shoved into his mouth during a short silence in which Kidou debated telling him the bowl was technically his too and decided against it, and in which Fudou nudged a shoulder lightly against his and did not seem to care about much at all aside from the ice cream. Kidou did not respond, did not even bother to shove him away, and after a moment or two Fudou sniffed and said, "Don't get so hung up over it, stupid. She didn't look that great."

Kidou stared at him as if he'd grown an extra set of arms. "Are you _kidding_ me? She was...she was beautiful." And gone, now, and it was unlikely he'd ever be granted a second chance with her if they crossed paths again. He winced.

"She wasn't that pretty, god. You're drunk, I'm not- and you know what they say about how the more you drink, the more people look hotter than they actually are."

"Well you're lookin' pretty damn ugly righ' now." Without intending to, Kidou slurred some of his words. Was the water not supposed to help with that? Maybe he had been slurring all this time but had only just become aware of how much of an idiot he sounded.

Fudou laughed again and the surprisingly pleasant feeling of it rippled through Kidou's body like some sort of wave. It was calming, somehow, despite it all. "What a charmer you are, eh? You'll never get _me _in your bed if you talk like that, is for sure." He swallowed another helping of ice cream, snickering, as Kidou rolled his eyes.

"I don't _want_ you in my bed," he shot back defensively.

"Good, because it's too stuffy in your room and I wouldn't want to sleep in there anyway."

This prompted Kidou into frowning sidelong at his friend but he said nothing, sipping at the water and allowing it to seep deep into him and lull the frenzied chaos that cluttered his mind. It was warm - too warm. "Did you put the heating on?" he asked, tugging at the collar of his shirt and awkwardly reaching to undo the top few buttons himself, now he had no beautiful woman to relieve him of his clothing. Fudou made a point of sighing dramatically as he watched Kidou fumble with the shirt, as though the very sight of it exhausted him in some manner, before he set his ice cream aside and leaned to do it for him.

"Yes, because I was fucking freezing. Unlike you I wasn't grinding up against strangers all night and keeping warm that way."

"You know you could have come with us if you wanted to."

"You told me not to! Hypocrite!"

"Because you always do something stupid," muttered Kidou. This translated to, 'because you always get in the way whenever I meet a nice girl,' more than anything else, though he recalled after a second that Fudou did not even need to be at the _club_ in order to do this, because he could always fuck things up when Kidou got home instead. He did not even have to leave the comforts of the apartment to mess up his life, the sly, freeloading bastard. "It's not like you to listen to me when I tell you not to do something, anyway," he added grumpily in afterthought.

"Yuuto~" Apparently the ice cream was more interesting to look at because Fudou was focused on his bowl instead of him, but the fact he called Kidou by his forename probably meant he'd noticed the sour look on his friend's face. Kidou grabbed for the spoon and stole a mouthful from the bowl, still frowning, still upset, and found that Fudou had added thin slices of banana to the ice cream. It tasted good. "I never do stupid things. You just haven't realised yet that I'm actually helping you out," laughed Fudou.

"Bullshit."

"_Rude_."

"As if you're one to talk. Asshole."

He smiled at him, or maybe smirked because Kidou thought he still looked suspiciously pleased with himself for some reason. Of course - he found enjoyment in ruining everything like this. His goal had to be Kidou's eternal misery. Then, Kidou noticed that the smirk had evened out into something more gentle; an expression that he rarely saw grace Fudou's features. It was something strangely, softly affectionate that, sometimes, had his lungs forgetting how to function for a second.

"You know," Fudou murmured slowly after a minute or so and toyed absent-mindedly with his spoon as he spoke, "You don't need to search so hard for someone to love. Going to all these clubs and such, trying to bring back girls you don't fucking know- you don't have to go so far, since you're lucky. It's probably closer to home than you think."

Somehow, Kidou did not quite know how to answer that. Fudou scrunched his nose up a bit, finished off his ice cream in the following quiet, then stood. He laid his hand briefly atop Kidou's head and ruffled his dreads, the motion almost unconscious, as if he could not quite help himself.

"You should sleep."

That said, and with another curious little smile down at him, he retreated to the bedroom he'd claimed as his own some time ago, leaving Kidou to wonder what exactly he meant by those words. Had he been more attentive, he might have picked up on the way the normally self-sure Fudou Akio had looked almost bashful.

* * *

><p><strong>.: + :.<strong>

* * *

><p>The next time, Kidou was not drunk (just buzzed) when he unlocked his front door, the girl's arms wound about his waist as she embraced him from behind. This time, he had enough sense to call out for Fudou, receiving naught but silence in reply. He took this to mean that his room mate had indeed vacated the apartment as he'd promised earlier, mentioning something offhandedly about maybe hanging out with the other Inazuma Japan members after their practice. However, it was his bedroom, rather than the couch, that Kidou led the eager woman to - just in case.<p>

For a long while he had mulled over what Fudou had said before, about love being closer than he thought, but in the end he had been unable to work out just what or who the other referred to, and a week later Endou had called with another offer to go clubbing and unwind. Craving something more, still, Kidou had readily agreed and now he was here all over again, inviting someone he had only known for a few hours into his house to do more than casually chat about his interior design skills.

Fudou said he was terrible at that, anyway. He kept rearranging the furniture.

Huffing and pushing stupid thoughts of his stupid room mate out of his mind, Kidou returned his focus to the girl just as she pressed her palms to his chest and shoved him, hard. He fell back onto the bed, breathless, and in an instant she was astride him, all wandering hands and full lips nibbling at his ear. She kissed him with enough passion that her lipstick smudged - Kidou did not really care about that, though, and he supposed she didn't either. His hands, which had come to rest on her thighs, travelled slowly upward over her hips, to her waist where he grabbed her and flipped them without warning, and pressed her back into the sheets. He swallowed her excited laugh with another kiss, fingertips gliding under the hem of her little black dress.

Soon enough, that sleek, formfitting number was decorating the floor of Kidou's bedroom instead, along with most of his own clothing (though she wanted him to leave the tie on). There was a rhythm in their movements; some sort of melody of sighs and other meaningless sounds of pleasure strummed out through the ministrations of fingers, hands, and hungering mouths. Kidou lost himself to that underlying song - at last, he would be able to play the entire tune without interruption-!

"..._MY FAVOURITE TABOO-_"

Both of them jerked in shock when music blasted out of nowhere, a heavy, electric bass beat drowning out their own tempo entirely and throwing them into confusion. Kidou could feel every thump of that bass thrumming through the floorboards and reverberating up the bed. The sound was absolutely ear-splitting, and from what he could tell it was coming from the other bedroom. The neighbours were surely going to _kill_ them for this, if Kidou didn't manage to kill Fudou first himself.

He should have known. _Every_ time, no exceptions.

With a seemingly endless string of apologies on his lips he rolled out of bed and headed to the door, belatedly remembering he should probably put pants on at least and turning to do so. Storming along the hall, he slammed open the door to Fudou's room with the intent of telling him to shut up his damn music but paused, for he was greeted with the sight of his room mate bent over, plucking a stack of fallen CDs off the floor. Normally it wouldn't have bothered him, but the amount of milky skin on show momentarily stopped Kidou dead in his tracks and he found himself openly staring. He didn't remember Fudou owning shorts that, well...short.

"Fuck." He shook himself out of his little daze, frowning, and crossed the room to shut off the stereo since Fudou hadn't noticed him yet and Kidou realised that trying to shout over the blaring music would be an exercise in futility. The sound cut out instantly when he turned the dial and the abrupt silence following was somehow just as deafening. A bemused Fudou slowly straightened up and cast a glance over at him.

"Oh, hello," he said, headphones round his neck, the lead of which he wound about his finger while murmuring something like, "Must've come out during that last spin..." His gaze strayed downwards, and then he quirked a brow at Kidou. "Happy to see me?"

Frustrated in more ways than one now, Kidou balled his hands into fists and ground out, "The exact opposite."

"Charming as always, Kidou." Fudou stabbed the lead back into the stereo, though he took off the headphones and set them down. Turning to lean against his desk, he watched Kidou with a question in his expression. "Sorry. I didn't realise it came out."

Most of Kidou actually wanted to believe him, but his repeated attempts (and subsequent victories) at messing up every single one of these nights had him convinced by this point that he was doing it on purpose.

"Can I put my music back on, or would you prefer peace and quiet to jerk off in?" Fudou asked when he did not speak, a mite huffy.

"I'm not- what- I have a girl over, you idiot!"

"Oh, one of _those_ again." He rolled his eyes at him and it took a lot of effort for Kidou to restrain himself from strangling him.

"Stop pretending. You _knew_ that."

"I didn't."

"I called out when I got back!"

"And?" Fudou looked at him as if he was stupid then made vigorous hand gestures toward the stereo. "You heard how loud I had it. There's no way I'd hear you."

"Or you just kept quiet so you could do this."

Sighing, Fudou turned his head away and stared out across the room. After a second, he returned to picking things up off the floor, which Kidou presumed he'd knocked over while dancing about in those shorts. Where had he even got those? He refrained from asking even if he was curious, because there were far more pressing matters at hand. Like the girl awaiting him in his room. Shit.

"Whatever," Kidou grumbled, voice clipped. "Just stay quiet for the rest of the night. Or go out."

"It's my house too-"

"It is _not_. You don't even pay rent half of the time."

"I don't need to pay rent because it's my house. I pay the bills."

"With _my money_!"

Fudou shrugged. Though he wanted so much to smack him for being cocky and difficult and oh-so-_Fudou_, Kidou kept his fists at his sides and told himself that was not the adult way to deal with the situation at all.

"Just- stay in here and stay quiet. _Please_."

"Fine. I'm putting my music back on though." Reaching for his headphones, Fudou flicked the switch on the stereo. "There's no way I'm spending half the night listening to the wailing mating cries of some woman I don't know."

"Wailing mating cries..." Kidou trailed off, shook his head in total exasperation, and simply left the room after that. When he returned to his own, however, he found the girl sitting on the edge of the bed and working her way back into her tights, looking a little dejected. "I'm- I'm sorry," he told her, not sure what to say and feeling rather humiliated.

She smiled up at him and canted her head. "It's fine, it's not your fault. It's just...the mood was kind of ruined." Standing, she took a moment to peek into Kidou's mirror and sort her hair before suggesting, "We should try again some time, maybe. When your room mate is out."

This was not how Kidou wanted his night to end at all, but the offer had his lips quirking at the corners all the same - it was more than anyone else had ever given him. At least there was still some hope here, he thought, as he grabbed for a notepad and scribbled his number down on it. "Sure," he said as he handed the paper to her, then added, "I am really sorry, though." After they'd gotten so far, she surely felt the same lack of fulfilment as he did.

She shushed him and leaned up to kiss his cheek, and tucked the scrap of paper into her purse. "I'll call you," she told him, kissing him again before leaving. Kidou stood in the hallway in silence for a few minutes until he was sure she was out of the apartment building, then turned and stalked along to Fudou's room.

He had his headphones on again, as he'd told him he'd do, and he blinked at him when he came in so soon after leaving before. His mouth was opening, probably to make some sort of amused remark about Kidou being in the wrong room, but he was given no chance to speak. Ripping the headphones off without a word, Kidou shoved him hard, pushing him backwards where he finally pressed Fudou tight between his body and the bedroom wall. He struggled half-heartedly, until Kidou aimed a punch at the wall close by his head. Then, he went rather still, and after a couple of seconds said quietly, "I take it she left."

Kidou grunted.

"Oh." He paused. "Guess she's not into that kind of music."

"You killed the mood," muttered Kidou. This was an understatement in his mind, for Fudou had not just killed the mood - he had utterly _obliterated_ it, then stamped on it afterward and poked it with a stick. "So she went home. Said she'd call me and we'd try again another time."

"How considerate of her."

Once more Kidou's fist slammed into the wall and Fudou twitched. "Next time, you won't fuck it up." He met the brunette's gaze with his own, hard and steely. Fudou's expression remained unreadable. "Next time, you either go out like you said you would or you stay quiet, and if it works out between me and her into something more, you accept it. Okay?"

"This is a very one-sided deal."

"Promise you won't-"

"You're not thinking about me at all in any of this, are you?" This sudden and unexpected question had Kidou halting in the midst of his sentence, a bit surprised; partly by the words themselves but more by the fact that Fudou looked genuinely hurt when he spoke them. He quickly averted his gaze away from Kidou's and appeared almost vulnerable for a moment, ducking his head down.

"What-"

"It's nothing." He looked back up again and the strange sensation of him being smaller than usual had vanished, and he seemed back to normal, having regained his composure. "I promise I won't get in your way or cockblock you or slap your next girlfriend-to-be," he said, using the same words as he always did - the words he never abided by.

Kidou sighed, his entire body slumping in exhaustion, and leaned forward to rest his forehead on Fudou's shoulder. "Why do you always do this?" he asked.

Between him and the wall, his friend stayed silent and shifted somewhat awkwardly. Hands raised and he patted at his upper arms until he looked back at him, and then he licked his own thumb before gently rubbing at the corner of Kidou's mouth. "You have lipstick on your face." He murmured it absently, wetting his fingers again and rubbing until satisfied and Kidou presumed he'd removed all the offending make up smudges. "Anyway, as much as I'd _love_ to stand here and tell you the whole story," he said, trailing a hand down to toy with his tie, the only thing Kidou was wearing on his upper half, and wind it round his forefinger, "it's kind of hard to breathe here. And your dick is poking me."

He jerked back. "...Sorry."

"Eh." Fudou's shoulders rolled in an insouciant shrug. He continued to lean against the wall, retaining his grasp on Kidou's tie, and after a second he tugged him closer again. There was a rather obvious quirk of mischief in his smile as their eyes connected and he said, "I'll take care of it if you want."

Kidou hated how much he suddenly wanted to agree to that offer, even if it was only a tease. Looking down, he caught a glimpse of Fudou's pale thighs and could not quite smother the thought of how amazing it would feel sliding himself between them. He shook his head vigorously, blinking. A very cold shower was in order. "No, no, I'll- shower."

It seemed Fudou was killing himself laughing as he left the room but Kidou did not turn back, no matter how tempted he was to do so.

The girl never called. Fudou told Kidou she wasn't worth wasting the time over and that there was someone better who was nearer to him. Never anything more than vague, he kept silent when pressed for further clues, though after that incident Kidou found himself occasionally, strangely, irrationally fixated on his friend's legs.

* * *

><p><strong>.: + :.<strong>

* * *

><p>Kidou did not consider this one of his better nights. Maybe it was the club they'd chosen - a newer one he'd never been to before, not one of the more familiar bars he frequented from time to time on weekends. Maybe all the right girls were hiding tonight, or perhaps the rowdy company of his group of friends had frightened them off. Whatever the case, he was returning home now somewhere after two a.m. and there was no one to accompany him to the door; no one hanging on his arm or pushing him up against the wall to smother him in heated kisses. Consoling himself with the thought that he had at least managed to thwart any of Fudou's plans to ruin his night, he stepped inside. His heart immediately sank and he realised how wrong he was.<p>

Almost instantly, the overpowering aroma of cheap alcohol reached his senses. At first Kidou wondered if he had entered another bar instead of his home and this was all just an illusion, but the sight of a very dishevelled Fudou sprawled on the couch cemented the fact that he really was where he thought he was. The little collection of bottles congregating on the coffee table explained where the smell was coming from and why it was so intense. Kidou counted all five of those bottles as being empty and winced. A drunk Fudou was even more unpredictable, aggravating, and often intolerable, than a sober Fudou, and certain to create some sort of trouble for him somehow.

When he finally took note of his entrance, Fudou cracked a lopsided smile and, using the back of the couch as a support, clawed his way into a more upright position. He slurred out a cheery, "Yuuto~!" and wiggled round so that he could sit properly. His clothes and hair were all in disarray, as though he'd fallen asleep at some point and only just woken up, and Kidou noticed with a jolt that Fudou seemed to be dressed in one of his shirts and not much else - he was proven wrong in this assumption when Fudou pushed himself to his feet, somewhat shakily, and stretched, revealing the hem of those short shorts of his. He promptly toppled sideways, all semblance of balance utterly beyond him at this point, but Kidou managed to catch him before he fell through the coffee table.

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked, guiding his room mate back onto the couch then occupying the space beside him. "I thought you weren't feeling too great?"

Laughing, Fudou smacked his arm a little too hard and leaned heavily into his friend. He appeared to have regained the colour in his cheeks (maybe that was just the alcohol), because when Kidou had left he'd looked close to collapsing and had said something about doing just that. Beside him on the cushions lay the remainder of the cheap pack of beer he'd bought and he was reaching for another bottle when Kidou snatched it out of his hands.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm drinkin'! Might as well have fun while you're out with those idiots an' all. And, I felt better." He eyed the bottle Kidou was still holding, before he squinted over his shoulder and asked, "So how was your night? No pretty woman in tow? 'm surprised."

If he kept staring at that bottle, Kidou was sure he'd try grabbing it back off him, so he turned and set the enticement on the floor, out of Fudou's line of sight. "It was all right- and not tonight, no, which is a damn good thing judging by the state of you." He tried to tame the wild mess that was Fudou's hair by running his fingers through it, but only really succeeded in making the other man laugh more.

"True. Imagine the look on her face if you'd brought someone back an' found _this_ all over your couch."

"I could at least blame your stupidity on your being completely smashed."

"Wha? I'm never stu...stupid...Yuuto." Fudou seemed to be having trouble forming words properly. Kidou continued tugging knots out of his hair, sighing. "I do it 'cause I caaaare," drawled the brunette, laying his head on Kidou's shoulder and looking up at him.

"Uh huh. You care so much that you want me to be lonely for the rest of my life?" This remark provoked a raised brow from his room mate, and an altogether befuddled sort of look.

"You're not lonely though." There was a pause, and then he giggled drunkenly. "Sexually frustrated, maybe, but not lonely."

Rolling his eyes, Kidou flicked him lightly in the forehead and watched Fudou go cross-eyed trying to follow the motion of his finger. "And whose fault do you think that is."

"Miiine." There was amusement in his gaze. Maybe it was just the drink affecting him. Without much thought Kidou allowed him to wind his arms round his torso and press into his side, where it was warm and comfortable. Absently he rested his chin atop Fudou's head, blowing stray strands of hair away from his nose and hoping he might just fall asleep there. He was a bit surprised when Fudou shifted and dragged his lips over his throat. "Since it's my fault, I guess I should do somethin' about it. Hm?"

A glance down revealed the expression he had anticipated - Fudou was grinning, grinning against his skin, and the smile only grew wider when Kidou swallowed hesitantly and his Adams apple bobbed against his mouth. Kidou coughed.

"You should drink some water, clear your head. I'll get you some."

Of course, Fudou did not loosen his grip at all, not even when Kidou tried to wriggle out of it.

"Don't want water," he muttered, face buried in his chest. He said something else that Kidou could not quite make out but the notion of asking him to repeat himself flew out of his mind like a flighty bird when he felt Fudou's hands sliding up the back of his shirt, a shiver running the length of his spine at the contact. There followed another burst of frantic struggling in which he tried to pry Fudou off again, failed terribly, and ended up pinned to the cushions with his drunken friend straddling him in shorts. Warm, bare thighs pressed against his body and Kidou found himself simultaneously trying to push Fudou away and hold him upright, as the brunette swayed dangerously in his inebriety.

"Fudou," he said somewhat breathlessly, smacking his hands away when he reached for his belt, "stop it."

"No."

He did not appear pleased by his constant refusals but unfortunately he was not put off, either. Grabbing Kidou's hands when he attempted to shove him off once more, he pushed and pushed until he somehow managed to get them above his head, where he held them in place - he also ended up practically lying on Kidou now his support was gone and he could not sit back up properly. Kidou felt him press a gentle kiss to his jaw, felt the building heat between them, and heard his own blood rushing in his ears.

"Yuuto, I won't mess this time up," murmured Fudou, the edges of his voice tinted with a certain sort of want and desperation. It was both a familiar and very foreign sound, all at once.

Frustrated, confused, at a loss of what to do, Kidou knew he at least had to regain some control before they both did something stupid. He twisted his body, working to loosen Fudou's grip enough that he could escape it and capture him instead. Once he accomplished this, he pushed him back upright and held his hands up where they could not grab at anything and add further fuel to the growing fire in his chest. By this point, he was quite sure his face was flushed pink. "You wouldn't be doing this and I wouldn't be tempted if you'd just stop messing up whenever I bring a girl over," he told him bluntly and with a frown, his mind racing as he tried to work out the right course of action for this situation.

Fudou huffed at him. "Maybe if you stopped being an idiot like that, you'd realise there's-" He cut himself off, sounding a bit strangled, as though his throat had constricted painfully around his words and forced him to swallow them back down. Kidou kept quiet, waited. "...You'd realise there's someone right _here_ who wants you," Fudou managed to finish, drunk and now upset and thus pouting kind of childishly. His gaze lowered with his hands and he curled his fingers in the material of Kidou's shirt, a motion that he allowed without thought, because his mind had instantly fried when it comprehended what Fudou actually meant.

"What..." Struck wordless, he could not quite finish.

Suddenly it all made sense. His vague remarks, the unconscious gestures of affection that he showed to no one else, the way he said his name, and the constant attempts to ruin Kidou's chances. He was not necessarily trying to make him miserable on purpose - he was jealous of those girls who were strangers yet were permitted to roam their hands all over Kidou's body when he could not, but he was either too proud or too shy to confess his feelings. Maybe both, though he'd likely never admit to it. In the extended silence that permeated the room while Kidou digested all this information and realised many things, he watched Fudou and noticed how he hunched over on himself some, how his shoulders were lightly trembling. Drunk or not, saying those words took a lot of courage and left him exposed, vulnerable in a manner he was not at all used to or particularly comfortable with. Kidou's features slowly softened.

"...How long?" he asked.

"Since a while," muttered Fudou.

"That doesn't even make any grammatical se-"

"I don't care. _I love you_."

Kidou thought he looked like he wanted to cry. It did not take much of a tug to pull him forwards into a tight embrace, which Fudou readily accepted, utilising the closeness as a way to hide his face from view. Kidou was not sure how long he held onto him for, cheek pressed into his hair and arms round his waist, before he broke the quiet by saying, "I thought you told me you were helping me out? Sounds more like you did it out of selfishness." There was no real venom in his voice - he merely stated fact, or his interpretation of it all at least. Fudou flinched all the same.

"...Okay, so it was selfish of me to keep fuckin' up all your chances like that but _fuck_, Yuuto, I'm so much better than any of those girls and y'know that. Besides, you were being selfish too."

"You never told me how you felt."

"You never asked." Bracing himself with shaky hands on Kidou's shoulders, Fudou pushed himself back upright to look him directly in the eye. He was searching for something in his face as he stared. That was obvious enough. "...D'you hate me for it?" he questioned eventually, his hesitation sounding loud and clear in his words.

"For what - your spectacular plans to make women hate me or for loving me?"

Fudou paused and scrunched up his nose a bit. "Both," he said.

Exhaling a sigh, Kidou leaned over and angled his head so as to press their foreheads together. He made sure to retain his grip on Fudou, lest he fall backwards off both his lap and the couch. It was warm - too warm. This time, though, he didn't think it was the heat making him feel like this. "No," he answered softly. He was taken aback, indeed, surprised but not disgusted. He simply never suspected or even imagined that Fudou would have fallen for him like this, even if it seemed so _obvious_ now he'd admitted it. Kidou felt quite the fool, all of a sudden.

"Oh good." Fudou's shoulders visibly slumped in relief - unreserved and still very much drunk, he leaned into Kidou and stayed there for a good while, until Kidou thought he had actually fallen asleep (like his legs had done some time ago). Then, Fudou shifted again and murmured against his neck, "Hey."

"Mmh?"

"Can I kiss you?"

He drew back to look at him, pressed his forehead to Kidou's again and nudged their noses lightly against one another's. Kidou gazed back, taking in his expression and the depths of his stormy blue eyes, close enough that he could see every detail without having to squint. He did not really voice his acceptance, instead choosing to tell through action by brushing his lips over Fudou's; and, though he blinked initially as if surprised he wasn't being pushed away, the brunette responded in turn with a fuller kiss. It was still tentative, soft, not quite what he expected of someone such as Fudou Akio, but soon he was nipping at his lower lip and goading him on with lazy challenges for dominance, all tongue and teeth and fingers stroking idly at his cheeks.

Abruptly, though, he stopped and jerked back, a look of mild horror crossing his features. Kidou took note of the way his skin paled and seemed suddenly clammier. For a second he feared his kissing was the cause, but then Fudou spoke. "Bathroom," he gasped, choking on the word. "Gonna be sick-"

He threw himself to the side but unfortunately made it only halfway along the hall before his throat constricted and he collapsed to his knees. A concerned Kidou, following behind him, laid his hands comfortingly on his back as Fudou shivered and heaved, retching up the very liquidised and alcoholic contents of his stomach onto the apartment floorboards.

"Apparently you're not really feeling better after all," Kidou informed him needlessly some minutes later as he finished cleaning up the last of the mess, casting a glance to the shuddering ball of blankets on the sofa that was Fudou. He received a very pitiful groan in response. "Feeling sick, then drinking..." Shaking his head and huffing a sigh, he went to rinse off his hands. He was reasonably sure he had not actually gotten anything horrible on them, but the pressing urge to wash them was there all the same.

After drying his hands he headed to his bedroom, grabbing handfuls and handfuls of thick duvet until he'd collected the whole thing up in his arms in one massive bundle, which he carried back into the sitting room. It was subsequently all dropped on Fudou, who gave muted, weak moans and tried to claw his way out of it - at least until he realised Kidou was slipping in beside him and wrapping them both up in soft, feathery warmth. When he noticed this, he stopped, hesitating a moment before shifting closer. Kidou failed to mask a smile as he leaned into him.

"Sorry," Fudou mumbled, sounding tired, as if he just wanted to pass out right there and then.

"At least you threw up _after_ the kiss."

"True. It wasn't because of your kissing, by the way."

Smiling, Kidou laid an arm across his shoulders, pressed a kiss to Fudou's temple and his cheek into his hair. It was an entirely unconscious series of gestures, he found, that he did not even realise he'd done until a few seconds later. Fudou glanced up at him.

"So," he began, his voice somewhat muffled beneath the blankets, "still consider yourself lonely, or...?"

Something uncomfortably hard was jabbing him in the thigh and being a general distraction - Kidou wrestled the TV remote out of the cushions under him then flicked the television on. He pulled a face. "I think you were right. I wasn't ever lonely, really." How could he be, when Fudou was with him, as he'd always been? "Thank you. I'm glad you're here."

There was a long pause. "So, are we- y'know-"

"We can try it," Kidou suggested casually.

Against his side Fudou wiggled a bit, presumably with glee, and dropped his head onto his shoulder after an enthusiastic nod - when Kidou slanted a sneaky glance down at him, he caught sight of the smile on the other's lips, something broad and thrilled and quietly overjoyed, brimming with happiness.

It was not such a bad night after all.

* * *

><p><strong>.: + :.<strong>

* * *

><p>The restaurant was busy and their order of drinks delayed some, and thus Kidou resorted to sitting at the bar to wait for them, lest they be stolen away to quench the thirst of some other, more demanding, table. So he was not all too surprised when the bar stool next to him was claimed by a woman sporting an empty glass, which she handed over to the bartender while smoothly requesting a refill. Kidou glanced at her, taking in a vision of classic beauty decked out in a silver dress - a girl he might have taken home, had they perhaps met a few months ago. She glanced back, considered him a moment, and struck up conversation. Not wanting to be rude, he responded, and soon they were discussing the establishment - both its high points and the areas that needed improvement (the service time was one of the latter that they agreed on).<p>

Topic turned to more personal matters, such as who each of them had for company here tonight. She told him she was here with a few friends of hers, having a girly night out, while Kidou motioned in the direction of his rowdy table and stated he was here celebrating his best friend's birthday. He could tell from her expression that she found the sight of Endou and the others gallivanting about to be rather amusing.

"I'll bet you're the serious one of the group," she remarked to him, as though unable to imagine him joining in the crowd of silly hats and laughter gathered around the table.

He smiled. "Sometimes."

The bartender returned with her newly-filled glass but she lingered a while to talk, saying she found him interesting company and that her girls could wait. Calling him 'Mister Mysterious', she brought up the fact that he was wearing glasses indoors and told him she was curious as to what his eyes looked like beneath the tinted visor. It was clear she wanted him, he felt, as she toyed with the little pink umbrella in her drink and gazed up at him through long, dark lashes.

Apparently, Fudou thought the same.

"'Scuse me," drawled the brunette, whose cowboy hat sat at a slight angle atop his head as he sauntered up to the pair just when the woman was in the process of leaning closer, "but that's my seat you're sitting in, and my Yuuto you're hitting on." He paused, considering something, while Kidou fought to keep a straight face and the girl blinked round in confusion. Then he reached to pluck up his drink off their massive group order, which had finally arrived, and amended, "On second thought, you can keep the seat," before he settled himself down on Kidou's lap.

Disheartened, the girl soon slunk off after a short parting goodbye to Kidou and a hint of a jealous glower toward Fudou. Kidou watched her return to her friends, placing a hand absently on Fudou's hip. His attentions were arrested by the little ponytail that bounced about beneath the shadow of the cowboy hat as the brunette laughed to himself and said something he did not quite hear. Once again, he found Fudou's hair silently reminding him of the passage of time; of how long it'd been since they'd met and grown and become what and who they were now. His hair was shorter tonight than it had been on the night when he'd drunkenly confessed, but his smile was still the brightest thing in the room. There was some sort of order to his chaos, something perfect and so brilliant it dazzled him - it all gave Kidou butterflies, really, setting off some strangely pleasant fluttering sensations in his chest that had bloomed from the seed planted on that night.

"Yuuuuto," called Fudou in an attempt to draw him back to reality, all smiles and tilted hat and _love_. Without much thought or care as to their current public location, Kidou leaned up and kissed him. This seemed to catch Fudou a bit off-guard but he accepted it all the same, and Kidou felt him wind an arm about his neck and tug him closer. "Remind me why we're here again?" he asked when they broke apart, a laugh in his voice.

Though relatively certain that was just a teasing joke, Kidou was opening his mouth to chide him for _forgetting about the birthday party_ when Endou arrived, sporting a polka-dotted party hat and with a colourful mess of party streamers strung across his shoulders, and generally looking a bit silly.

"It's time for cake!" he cried in that excitable manner that reminded Kidou of a puppy.

Fudou blinked at him. "Ah," he said. Slipping from Kidou's lap, the brunette reached up to brush confetti out of Endou's hair then began to shove him back in the direction of their table, calling to Kidou, "Hurry it up, Yuuto, or you'll miss the cake!" and not bothering to help with the large trays of alcohol they were supposed to carry over. Luckily for him, Midorikawa, Haruna, and Aki (all wearing perky bunny ears) noticed Kidou's predicament and rushed to the bar to save the day.

Kidou was quite sure that Endou's birthday wish was that Gouenji was here to celebrate, too. He knew that, if he had the chance to wish upon a star tonight, he'd wish that Fudou's smile always remained as bright as it was now.

Love was a lot closer to home than he had imagined, indeed.

* * *

><p><strong>end.<strong>

* * *

><p>help i don't know how to write stories with actual plot?<p>

this fic is also known as "in which riou tries to write Kidou and Fudou in character and fails miserably". i actually prefer Kidou as more of a 'looks badass but is actually ador(k)ably shy' kind of guy but that didn't seem to carry across much in this fic, did it... he became more promiscuous, i think, than i originally intended. i blame Endou for dragging him to all those bars, because he was probably enticed to the clubbing scene first by the fancy flashing lights and those nights where they do nothing but play love songs that he dances to while thinking of Gouenji. i don't even know.

i adore this pair. i adore this entire series and so many of its wonderful characters. and i adore you especially, if you took the time to ready this story and perhaps found some enjoyment in it.

love,

riou.

(the song Fudou was listening to in the second scene, and which their neighbours (and random girl #2) probably do not like very much, is Temposhark's _Irresistible_, because it's what i was listening to at the time of writing that particular scene.)


End file.
